A New Evil
by Ozymandeos
Summary: It's been five years since Team Galactic failed. Three years since Cynthia was challenged and defeated by an upstart trainer. And now crime is on the rise once more. Now an ex-champion's daughter sets out on her journey with her mother's glaceon. Elsewhere, an antisocial absol saves a young shinx and adopts her. As they will learn in the worst way, not everything is as it seems.
1. Chapter One

**Author's Note: Well, it's another Pokémon idea. I make no promises on whether or not it will actually be updated even remotely reliably. But ah well, here it is anyway. **

**Note: this will be rather dark. As in the criminal syndicates don't play by the rules, and Pokémon with massive teeth and the builds of predators don't just survive on berries, unless they don't have the stomach for killing. Most of those end up being trainer Pokémon.**

* * *

"Help!" I froze halfway through a bite of the Oran berry in front of me when the cry rang out. Such pleas were rather common in this part of the forest, mostly due to the large number of predatory Pokémon that lived in this area. Normally I'd have just ignored it; while I preferred berries to meat, other predators could make their own choice. If some poor sap couldn't defend themselves, I wasn't one to intervene. But this time I felt compelled to help. If asked why, I'd have to say it was how young the female voice sounded. Even a cold-hearted absol like myself couldn't ignore what sounded like a hatchling in need.

The cries continued as I left my half-finished meal behind and dashed through the foliage towards them. They got so loud that I knew I had to be almost on top of the person screaming for help when they abruptly cut off with a high-pitched squeal. For a moment I thought I was too late, but then I burst through a ring of bushes and into a clearing. A shinx, far smaller than most were, which meant it was very young, was surrounded by a ring of poochyena. The tiny electric type was bleeding from a rather large bite wound on one of its front legs. It seemed exhausted yet it was still standing.

"Leave. Now," I growled in my most threatening voice. I took on an intimidating stance, glaring at them while angling my head so the blade would catch the light.

"Or what? This is our kill!" one of them, most likely their leader, yipped back at me. It seemed to be close to evolving, with how its fur was darkening and it was several inches taller than the others. In response to its challenge, I charged up an attack that I was still learning how to use right. In a bluff that I knew they wouldn't call, I sent the blade of dark energy from around my horn into the ground between the leader's legs.

"The next one won't be undercharged, and it won't be at the ground." I stepped forward and noted how they scrabbled backwards. "This is your last chance to get out of here unhurt."

After a few more seconds of glaring at me, I made as if to run at them. They yelped and turned to run, their tails quivering between their legs. I chuckled to myself at their behavior. It wasn't often that I let myself have fun like that. Being one of the only absol in Sinnoh that didn't stick with the relatively few clans on Mt. Coronet had its perks after all, because most Pokémon in this area were rather scared of me. My personality didn't really help their opinion, which currently was along the lines of me being a murderer exiled from one of the clans. What they didn't know was that I hadn't once killed another living creature. I just didn't have the stomach for it. That didn't mean that I liked being around others though, which was why I did nothing to discourage their thoughts. After what had happened to my family I preferred to just be left alone to thinking and training.

"Can you walk?" I asked in a much friendlier voice once the predators were gone. The little shinx sniffled and tried to scoot away from me, when I walked closer. "Relax, I'm not going to hurt you," I reassured her.

"But… you're that evil absol Mommy and Daddy told me to stay away from," the small, female Pokémon whimpered. This was a downside to my reputation; people were always scared when I did want to talk to them.

"I'm not evil. I just like to be left alone." I shook my head before continuing, "Besides, if I was evil, would I have saved you?"

"Ummm… no?" she answered after a bit of hesitation.

"Right. Then that means I can't be evil. So I must be good. That's why I saved you." I sat down next to her and looked at her leg wound. It was rather nasty, for a bite from a poochyena. It didn't look like she'd be able to walk on it, judging by the glimpse of bone I could see in the wound. "What are you doing all out here on your own? Why weren't your parents protecting you?"

"They… they're…" she sniffled. Oh great… now I'd made her cry. From the way she was stuttering, they had either abandoned her, been captured, or died. Which meant that, having already saved her, I had the choice of leaving her to die or being stuck with raising a wounded and extremely young shinx.

"Shhh, shhh. It's okay," I awkwardly said in an attempt to comfort her. "You're going to be alright."

"How do you know that?" the shinx hissed at me with a surprisingly large amount of venom in her voice. "I can't even walk, and my leg feels like someone almost ripped it off! I'm no better off now than before!"

"Don't be so negative. I didn't save you just to leave you alone like this." And it was true. I didn't know for sure what had gone through my head when I'd come here, but I definitely wouldn't let her die. It just wasn't in my nature. "You can come with me if you want. I know where to find some berries that should make you heal faster, and I can teach you some of how to protect yourself. The choice is yours, but I'd rather not see you die after I came over here to save you."

"You'll really help me? Why?"

"I'm a good person, or so I'd like to think. When given the choice, I prefer to help people, especially when they're barely more than hatchlings."

"Hey! I'm not a hatchling, I'm a full two weeks old!" the little blue Pokémon protested. I chuckled and started to stand. My plan was working perfectly; she'd stopped crying and seemed to have forgotten about the bad memories I'd stirred up.

"Well then, if you're not a hatchling I suppose you can walk to where we're going instead of me carrying you like I'd intended." As I stood I decided to have a little fun at her expense. My words were directed over my shoulder to her as I started walking over to the edge of the clearing. I heard her try to stand and follow me, but she obviously fell again. Yet she still didn't call out for me to wait. She was obviously stubborn. Just like me.

I turned around and walked back to her with a smile. As I knelt down next to her I said, "You're a lot less annoying than my little sister was as at your age. She always thought she was entitled to everything, and would throw a tantrum if we didn't do her bidding. C'mon, climb onto my back. I'll carry you."

I winced when her little claws pulled at my fur, but it wasn't that bad once I'd gotten back onto my feet and she'd settled into place. Half an hour later, we were back at where I'd made my den. I left her there while I went to get some more Oran berries. Along with being one of my favorite berries in terms of flavor, they always seemed to speed up my healing some whenever I got hurt. So I gathered a few and carried them back to her. I was glad I'd already eaten. Otherwise I might have been tempted to eat a few myself. Arceus knew she needed them all.

When I got back, she eagerly wolfed down half of the berries. It was almost as if she hadn't eaten in days…which now that I think of it she might not have. After that she yawned and asked me to tell her a story. Rather than one of the old legends I'd been raised on, I told her the story of when my sister and I had pissed off an abomasnow. She fell asleep halfway through. I smiled at her sleeping form and went up to the front of my den, just to make sure nothing tried to sneak in following the scent of blood.

* * *

Shit…this isn't good. Voltana, as she'd told me her name was when she'd woken up on the first day here, had gotten worse. Her leg wasn't healing, and from the awful smell coming from it I assumed it was infected. Maybe some people would know enough about berries to heal it, but I only knew the basics. Nowhere near enough to help with the fever she had now. And I didn't know of anyone nearby who could; psychics that could use recover on others were few and far between, and none were in this area. So that left just one choice; the humans.

Normally I wouldn't go anywhere near the humans. I didn't even visit the areas they frequented. Not after what had happened to my family. If I hadn't gotten to know Voltana during the week she'd been with me, I wouldn't have done it either. But I had gotten to know her rather well. And for her, this week had been a third of her life. If she stayed with me as she grew up, the odds were she wouldn't even remember her real parents. The fact that she'd slipped up a few times before falling asleep and called me Daddy just reinforced that point and woke the instincts I didn't even know I had, making me want to protect her. I guess that's how parents feel about their children.

So, during one of the brief periods of consciousness, I had Voltana climb onto my back again. Even through my fur I could feel her fever, so I ran as fast as I could without knocking her off. Though it went against just about every one of my instincts, I was intentionally going to one of the well travelled paths that trainers used. There I would reveal myself to a trainer that didn't seem too bad, and hope they'd take Voltana to one of their 'Pokémon Centers'. If whatever trainer I chose tried to catch either of us, I was fairly confident in my ability to fight back and escape. I'd been doing little aside from training for quite some time.

If I remembered my distances correctly, I was only about an hour away from the path when things went wrong. Light as Voltana was, running for hours with her on my back was tiring. I was breathing hard and focused on nothing but running. So it wasn't that surprising that I'd missed all the signs that someone was following us. I didn't even realize it until a black-and-grey Pokémon jumped out in front of me and sent me skidding to a halt. When I looked around I found that a ring of smaller Pokémon had gathered around me.

"So it seems that you actually grew a backbone when you evolved. Cute." I gave a menacing glare at the mightyena in front of me. "Now get out of my way."

"No," it growled at me. It seems that the poochyena I'd saved Voltana from had held a grudge… and that their leader have evolved. "You stole that shinx from us. Now we're going to make you pay!"

"Yeah!" chorused the poochyena. I sighed and let Voltana, who was still asleep, slide off my back and to the ground. I then stomped up so that my face, and by extension the very sharp blade above it, was right in the shorter Pokémon's face.

"You and you're pack will leave," I spoke slowly, as if explaining something to an idiot. "Otherwise you'll be lucky if you get to walk away from this." It was kind of an empty threat. Even to protect Voltana I doubted I could bring myself to kill them. Hurt them? Sure. Enough to knock them out, but no more. Hopefully not leave any lasting damage… but I wouldn't lose any sleep if I did.

Now that I was paying attention again, it was rather simple to hear when one of the poochyena launched itself at me. I spun around and slapped it with the blunt side of my blade, sending it flying into a tree. It hit with a thud and didn't get back up.

The mightyena lunged at me with a growl, but I'd already sprang away, just a blur as I shot over and tackled a poochyena that was about to bite Voltana. It slid away, but then rolled over and sprang right back at me. I dodged to the side and slashed with my horn, leaving a decently sized cut along its side. It collapsed to the ground unconscious, but even as I turned to face another attacker the mightyena barreled into me.

The breath burst from my lungs as I was sent rolling, the mightyena on top of me when I stopped. It tried to rip out my throat, but a last-minute roll meant that it only tore a small chunk of flesh and hair off of my side. With a howl of anger I retaliated, biting down as hard as I could on one of its forelegs. The bone inside snapped with an audible crack as it passed out and I spat out a mouthful of blood.

When the three conscious poochyena saw the fury in my eyes they turned to run. And just as quickly it had started, everything was quiet and peaceful again. I stood there panting as blood ran down my side, staining my pristine fur, for a few moments just to make sure it was really over. Considering there had been six of them and only one of me, I'd gotten off pretty lightly. It showed that the training I'd been putting myself through for the last few years had really worked.

After awkwardly getting Voltana back onto me, I started back on my way. This time I went at a slower pace so I could be sure to catch any other possible ambushes. There weren't any. After close to two hours, during which time the shinx on my back started mumbling things that didn't make sense and nearly rolled off of me as she thrashed around, I came out onto the route. It was mostly empty, but there was a single female trainer with a glaceon at her side a few hundred feet away. I rushed over to them, but the small blue Pokémon interspersed herself between the trainer and me.

"Not so fast there Absol," the obviously female Pokémon warned. "Unless you want to get captured, stay away from Astrid. I'm not going to let some random stray like you hurt her if that's your goal."

"Out of my way," I growled at her as I put on a burst of speed to get up to the trainer. I wasn't usually this rude to Pokémon I'd just met, but she couldn't do anything for Voltana. Her trainer might be able to if I showed her the shinx's hurt leg.

Before I even realized what was happening my face smacked into the ground as my legs froze to it and I came to a sudden stop. Voltana flew off my back and to the trainer's feet.

"I warned you. Now…" the glaceon began to say with a smug grin, but the trainer, oblivious to our conversation, cut her off.

"Oh my Arceus! Look at this shinx's leg!" I growled as the girl picked up Voltana. "We have to get it to a Pokémon center!"

"Did you do that to the shinx?" The glaceon glared at me.

"Of course not! You think I'd come running here to ask for help if I'd done that?" I shot back as I managed to kick free of the ice around my legs. "If you hadn't frozen me I would've explained that. Now can you please get that human to put her down?"

"Not unless you want to try to get help for that infection of hers by yourself. An absol like you won't get very far into the city without at least looking like you belong to a trainer. We'll get your friend to the center, but you'll have to trust us," the glaceon called over her shoulder as she started to run after the human. I hadn't even noticed that the trainer had moved, so I was a bit slow to catch up.

"Fine. She won't try to catch either of us, will she?" I asked after taking a moment to think.

"Of course not. Astrid can't stand making anyone unhappy."

I didn't like working with what was obviously an arrogant and pretentious glaceon and her trainer, but if it meant Voltana would be fine, I could stand it. If only just.


	2. Chapter Two

I didn't get as many strange looks as I'd expected as I ran through Jubilife, the unconscious shinx in my arms while the absol and Polaris trotted after me. If anything the fact that the absol was following me got more looks than the wounded Pokémon. I gave a brief 'thank you' when one of the trainers standing outside of the Pokémon Center made sure that the doors were open for me to run through. For such a big city's center, the lobby wasn't that crowded. A few dozen trainers were sitting around on the couches watching some news report, and a few more were up at the counter talking with the Nurse Joys.

The only one that wasn't preoccupied with something immediately called over several chansey. The absol growled at them, but after they said their names to it a few times it relaxed. I'd never understood the Pokémon language, but it seemed to work for them. Some trainers even got to the level that they could understand their own Pokémon after a time, but that was rare.

"You should've taken better care of your shinx! That looks like a serious infection!" the nurse berated me. "Any halfway-decent trainer would have known to bring their Pokémon in before they got to this point!"

"It's not my shinx," I replied. "This absol nearly ran me over an hour or two ago, and the shinx was on its back. From how it was acting, I guessed that it wanted me to bring it here."

"Wait…you brought a wild absol into the city?" She seemed astonished at this. "Do you know how much most trainers would give to have one? If you don't want someone else to capture it, I'd recommend at least acting like it's yours."

"Ok." I'd realized this already, and from the way the absol had been sticking close to me it seemed to know it too. "How long will it take for the shinx to heal?"

"It depends on if the infection's as bad as it looks or not. Tomorrow morning at the earliest, but probably closer to three days for her to heal completely. I assume you'll be wanting a room Miss…" she trailed off with the prompt.

"Ailora. Astrid Ailora," I replied.

"Fourth floor, room eighteen. Here's…" she started to hand me a key and then trailed off. "Wait…did you say Ailora? As in Celest Ailora, the former champion?"

"Mmhmm. She's my mom." I took the key and started over to the elevator. Mom had told me to expect this when I started training. Apparently it came with being related someone who used to be the most powerful trainer in Sinnoh. This was the first time I'd been away from home by myself, and I had to say, it was invigorating.

"Hey, you," a voice called out just as I was about to press the call button. "How many badges do you have?"

"Me?"

"Yeah, you Redhead." Okay…I really dislike the guy who's talking. Some big, buff, teenager, probably all full of himself like most boys were. "Are you dumb or something?"

I grit my teeth as I replied, "No, I most certainly am not dumb. And even though you're being unnecessarily rude, I have no badges. Now if you'll excuse me I'll be on my way."

I turned to leave, but he grabbed my shoulder. I bit back the reflex to turn around and punch him, which Mom had said could get me arrested even if the person was being rude. I even told Polaris to calm down. From the frost spreading across the floor from where she was standing, she seemed to be just as angry with the kid as me. And that's what he should be afraid of; she could and would do a lot worse to him than I would.

"I challenge you to a battle. You're glaceon and absol against my team."

I just shook his hand off my should and walked over to the elevator as I told him, "No."

"You can't turn down a battle!" He was wrong there. Trainers could refuse to battle for any number of reasons, though it was considered bad manners unless it was serious.

"I just did. Considering that I've been walking and sleeping outside for the past week, along with running for the last two hours, I just want to get to my room and rest."

His next words stopped me in my tracks. "I think you're just a coward."

"What did you just say?" I hissed as I spun around to face him.

"I called you a coward. You're just too afraid of losing to battle me."

"The basement arena. Now." I was practically quivering with rage as the elevator door dinged and slid open. A few trainers walked out, taking a wide berth around the angry glaceon, as I went in and selected one of the underground arenas.

According to Mom, it used to be that trainers would have to battle in the streets, go out of town, or pay a hefty fee to use a dedicated arena if they were in town and were challenged. After enough collateral damage, complaints, and donations from people like Mom they put half a dozen underground arenas in most of the major Pokémon centers for free use.

The rude boy and a few other trainers, who probably wanted to watch what the thought would be a one-sided smackdown, were in the elevator too. They'd be right, but not in the way they thought. After all, they didn't know that Polaris was from Mom's old team. I knelt down next to the glaceon in question and started whispering to her.

"Look, I know I'm not even half the trainer that Mom is. Just try to follow my orders, ok?" Polaris nodded and gave me a grin. I felt the need to add, "Even if it's way off the mark, will you follow it?" She shook her head. Well… it was better than nothing. And, having known Polaris since I was a baby, I didn't really expect her to agree to that. She didn't have much respect for anyone training-wise. She hadn't even listened to Mother at first. I know she'll start following my orders once I show her that I know what I'm doing. That's just how she is.

The elevator finally got to our destination when I stood up again. I filed out and went over to one of the empty arenas. The boy went to the other side of it and a few trainers filed into the stands.

I gestured for Polaris to take the field and then called out, "Ready when you are."

He scoffed at me and tossed out a pokéball. When the red light faded a golbat was at the other end of the field. I called out for her to do an ice beam, but she just looked at me and yawned. As the other trainer started to give his golbat an order, she breathed out and sent a massive blizzard at the other Pokémon. By the time the snow had cleared, the Pokémon was just a hunk of ice. Grumbling some words that I would have been grounded for even thinking, he recalled the golbat and sent out a graveler.

"Use rollout!" he called out to his Pokémon. As the graveler curled up into a ball and started toward Polaris, I gave my own order, hoping she would listen this time.

"Blizzard!"

Once again, however the glaceon just looked at me and shook her head. Instead of the blizzard, she sent an ice beam along the graveler's path. When it hit the patch of ice that was left behind, it started skidding out of control and smashed into a wall after missing Polaris. When it started to stagger to its feet, she acted without any kind of order from me. A chunk of ice nearly as big as her flash-froze in the air before her. It was only there for a second before she spun around and kicked it, sending the entire chunk flying at the opposing rock-type. When it hit, the Pokémon collapsed and fell silent after a single groan of its name.

"Any more?" I taunted the rude boy. It looked like he might have growled in reply as he recalled the graveler and sent out a monferno. By now several of the other trainers were laughing at my opponent, beaten as he was by a disobedient glaceon, and even the wild absol seemed to be smiling.

"Just wait for now!" I called out to Polaris. She gave me a cheeky grin, and then pretended to go to sleep. Like I'd been hoping, this infuriated the other trainer's fire type. Its temper got the better of it, and instead of using a flamethrower like it had been told it began to charge at my glaceon, a crackling aura of flames appearing around it.

"Dodge and use hyper beam!" From the way she didn't move, I assumed she wasn't going to listen again. So I threatened, "Do it now, or your fur won't be brushed for a week!"

She hesitated for a second, but that was long enough for the Monferno to cover the remaining distance. The absol seemed to be laughing as Polaris rolled a few times before leaping to her feet, her side slightly singed. In some recorded battles Mom had saved I'd seen her take hits far worse than that and keep on going, I knew her pride was hurt more than her body. My threat seemed to have worked, at least. With fury in her eyes, an orange orb formed just in front of her mouth.

The monferno realized just how much trouble he was in and tried to follow his trainer's frantic orders to get out of there, but he was too late. After a few moments of charging up the attack, a bright orange beam of light shot out. It caught the monferno's torso and, with a very loud crack, sent him flying back into the impenetrable glass around the arena. I couldn't help but wince in sympathy as it crashed to the ground limp, knocked out by what seemed to me to be an over powered hyper beam. I'd have to talk to Polaris about that…too much charge in one of those could outright kill some Pokémon.

The boy, or rather thug from how he looked and acted, recalled his monferno and ignored the hand I offered to him. He didn't even pay me for beating him, which was illegal in and of itself. I wasn't going to complain though; it wasn't worth it to deal with someone as abrasive as him. It wasn't like I needed the money anyway; Mom was rich.

"You did good out there Polaris." I ran my fingers through the cool fur on her head as she rubbed up against my leg. "But you definitely aren't getting any special treats tonight. If you'd listened to me like you listen to Mom it might have been longer before you had to get used to normal Pokémon food again."

Her fur stiffened at my last words, and she said her name again in a disappointed manner. I just chuckles and brushed her suddenly freezing hair as I said, "You've been spoiled little miss. It's time to get back to a training diet; you definitely aren't going to be eating better than me anymore." She limped away after that, seeming to favor her singed side. I knew it was just a trick though, trying to get me to relent out of sympathy. It wouldn't work.

Polaris seemed to be either playing or bickering, I couldn't really tell which, with the wild absol as I walked over to the elevator. While I was leaning against the wall waiting for it to come back down, two trainers who seemed to be sixteen or so walked over. One obviously loved the color pink, judging by her outfit. Even her hair matched the color; so much so that it hurt to even look at her. The other had brown hair, was rather pale, and was dressed similarly to me; a t-shirt with a pokéball logo on it and faded jeans.

"Your glaceon is sooooo strong!" the pink one enthusiastically squealed. "How did you train it to be like that?"

"I didn't. She was my mom's for nearly eighteen years. My Mom didn't want me to start training until I was eighteen, but I wore her down enough that she let me, as long as I had a strong Pokémon with me. So she gave me Polaris." I shrugged.

"I assume that's the glaceon?" the other one asked. I nodded, and then she continued, "I'm Aurora. My overly peppy friend here is Mary. I couldn't help but notice that your glaceon wasn't listening to you."

The doors opened and we stepped into the elevator as I shrugged and replied, "She doesn't respect me that much yet. Not surprising considering how I always tried to play with her as a kid. Once I prove I actually know what I'm doing, she'll start listening. Most of the time." I shrugged again. "I can always just threaten not to brush her fur. That worked this time."

"Her fur is really pretty. Did your mom ever enter her into contests?" the peppy one asked.

"Not that I know of. I don't really think she'd like them; she doesn't even let anyone other than me and Mom pet her. I don't think she really likes other people that much." To break the awkward elevator silence that followed, I added, "I'm Astrid by the way. So…I assume you two are trainers?"

"Yeah. I've been through the gym circuit already, and Mary's a coordinator. I've talked her into entering the tournament over in Canalave with me though."

"That memorial tournament for when Team Galactic was defeated? I thought it wasn't for another two weeks."

"It's not. But we'd rather get there early. It'll give us a chance to train some more for it." The elevator opened on my floor, which it seemed was theirs too. As we got out, Aurora asked, "So, what brings you to Jubilife?"

"Just passing through. I don't know where to head first: Eterna, Canalave, or Oreburgh," I said with a shrug as I fumbled around in my pocket for the key I'd been given.

"Why not come with us to Canalave? You can try your hand at the tournament there and challenge the gym. It should be a good experience for you and your Pokémon."

I took a moment to think before replying, "Maybe. It'll be a few days before I can leave though; I've got a shinx currently being treated for an infection."

" Take the rest of the day to think on it. We'll be somewhere around the center until nine Wednesday morning. Just find us if you want to come along." Aurora gave me a small smile as Mary fished a key like mine out of one of her skirt's pockets and unlocked a door a ways down the hall. "Believe me, I know how lonely it can get travelling with just your Pokémon."

They went into their room as I finally found my key and entered my own. Polaris immediately ran inside and leapt onto the bed, but the absol seemed reluctant to go inside.

"C'mon, I can't let you wander around out here. I'm not going to hurt you," I told it with a roll of my eyes. It reluctantly walked inside, and I noticed a partially scabbed over bite on its side. I gasped at the sight of it as I let the door shut with a slam, making the Pokémon jump and whirl around to face me. The bite looked painful, and streaks of dry blood trailed down into its once-pristine white fur.

I took off my backpack and leaned it up against the bed. After a few moments of rooting around inside of it, I finally found the spray bottle I was looking for. The absol growled and pulled away as I tried to reach for it, making Polaris giggle. Obviously it wouldn't just let me spray the potion. And it probably wouldn't let me give it a bath to clean the blood from its fur either. To pass the time while I thought up a new course of action, I turned the T.V. on and put it on one of Polaris's favorite reality shows while I waited for Mom to answer my call on the X-Transceiver.

"How've you been Astrid? It's been a few days since your last call." Mom's face appeared on the screen. From how she was sweaty and breathing hard, I'd probably interrupted her workout.

"Nothing much had happened." I paused to shrug. "I'm at Jubilife's Pokémon Center now, and a few minutes ago I won my first battle."

"Good for you Sweetie. Did Polaris actually do what you told her to?"

"Not at first. Then I threatened not to brush her for a week, and she started follow my orders. She only got hit once when she didn't dodge like I said to."

"That's good. At least you got her to listen faster than I did." We both laughed. "So, have you caught any other Pokémon yet?"

"No. I do have a wild absol with me though." I tilted the device around my wrist to show her. When she raised an eyebrow I continued, "Its friend had an infection, so I brought it here for treatment. It has to stay with me while its friend is healing so nobody tries to catch it."

Mom grinned and shook her head. "Only you would just let an absol go after having it close enough to catch. It's good that you're helping it though. Where do you plan to go next?"

"I'm thinking Canalave. Two girls I met earlier are headed there and they offered to let me tag along. I'll challenge the gym there and maybe try to enter the Galactic Memorial Tournament."

When she asked for more on the girls I gave her a description of each. Our conversation ate up half an hour, but even it had to draw to a close. When she asked if I had anything more I wanted to talk about, I grinned and looked at the absol from the corner of my eye. It seemed to sense my gaze and shuffled away. It wasn't a psychic so it couldn't know what I was planning. And that was a very good thing.

And so, in a whispered conversation, Mom and I hashed out a plan.

* * *

**Author's Note: So, what do you guys think so far? Any guesses or questions as to my plans, or just comments on the writing and story? Leave in a review!**

**Astrid: Be sure to come back next chapter and see just what I'm planning.**

**Absol: Uh…can I take sick leave for next chapter? That look in her eyes is scaring me. **

**Me: No. You're under contract! Besides, your name will finally be shown. So no complaining!**


	3. Chapter Three

"You two…you're evil!" I whimpered as the ice around my feet finally melted and let me move again. I'd broken free earlier and tried to run, but they'd caught me and forced me back into that accursed room, back into the unnaturally warm water. I'd tried to fight, I really had, but the glaceon kept dodging me or freezing me before I could do anything to her or the human!

"Oh relax, it was just a bath," the blue Pokémon taunted from her new seat on the human's lap. "Besides, your fur's actually kind of nice when it isn't stained with blood. Too bad whatever bit you tore off a patch of it. Otherwise you might actually be kind of cute."

I decided to just ignore that last comment of hers in favor of examining the numb spot on my side where the fur in question was missing. Amazingly, the bite was half-closed already. Whatever the human had sprayed onto it had stung horribly at first, but now it didn't hurt at all. It was even healing amazingly fast. But that didn't mean I forgave either of them for what they had just put me through.

"That wasn't a bath; a bath is just a quick swim in a stream to get the dirt off your fur. That was an unholy abomination of heat and water!" I shouted back as I curled up in a corner. "My fur does look awesome though. Yours has nothing on it!"

She rolled her eyes as she shot back, "Oh please, this is after a full day of travelling and fighting off some rather aggressive Pokémon. I haven't even been brushed yet. Besides, it's not like there's anyone I want to impress."

I watched somewhat fearfully as the human pulled what I was afraid was an instrument of torture out of her bag. It looked pointy and painful. And she started running it through the glaceon's fur! Even worse, the ice type actually seemed to enjoy it.

"How can you be enjoying that?" I asked, some of my fear filtering through.

I turned to look at the glowing box that was somehow talking. If I hadn't known better, I'd have thought that a meowth and a rattata were fighting each other rather unconventionally inside it. But they looked different. The colors were a bit off, and everything seemed…surreal. As I watched, the rattata gnawed through a rope, causing some human contraption to fall onto the meowth chasing after it.

"It only hurts if your fur is a complete mess. Otherwise it feels…" she paused to let out a contented purr. "Soooooo good. And it makes your fur shiny and neat."

Where the thing had already gone through, the glaceon's fur did look rather nice. But I still wasn't letting either of them get anywhere near me again. Not after what they did earlier. Still, it could have been worse. They'd brought Voltana here, and they didn't seem to want to catch either of us. It was a welcome change from being chased by any human that saw me. And it was a good thing too; after watching the Glaceon effortlessly win in the battle earlier, I didn't think I'd be able to win in a fight with her.

"Hey, Absol, are you even listening to me?" the ice-type snapped, her slightly irritated tone jolting me out of my thoughts. It seemed that she'd been talking the entire time.

"I do have a name, you know. And it's not Absol," I shot back to her. Then, rather mareepishly, I added, "Also…no, I was kind of tuning you out."

"Then what, pray tell, is your name?" she asked, the sarcastic tone in her voice accompanied by an eye roll.

"Silvanus. I assume by how the girl…" I started to say.

"Astrid," the glaceon interjected.

"Fine. By how _Astrid_ keeps calling you Polaris, I assume that's your name?" I finished, making sure to emphasize the name.

"Uh-huh. So, as I was saying when you, like a typical male, tuned me out, how did you meet the shinx? Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't most absol and other predators eat un-evolved Pokémon like shinx when they get a chance? Especially ones as young as she is." She actually sounded curious.

"I saved her from a pack of poochyena a week ago. She was barely two weeks old…even a cold-hearted loner like myself couldn't let her die. Well…most would have eaten her themselves. But I don't eat meat. Mostly because I can't bring myself to kill anything. So I saved her and one thing led to another. Now I just feel attached. I can't leave her by herself like I intended to before. I mean, really, she's barely more than a hatchling," I said a bit more than I had meant to, but I couldn't help it. Even though I didn't know the glaceon at all, I just had to get the thoughts out. Off of my chest, so to speak.

"So you've basically adopted a hatchling that is not your own, or even your own species? What about her actual parents?"

"She gets really sad whenever I ask about them, so I assume something bad happened." I sighed before continuing, "She might forget them completely over time. She's been with me for a third of her life now. She's already slipped up and called me her father a few times."

"It sounds like you view her as a daughter already," she said before lapsing into silence. I started to protest, but fell silent myself after a moment. She was right. I really did see Voltana as my own child.

"I just don't know if I'm ready for this."

"Relax, you'll do fine. Just keep her safe and teach her the best that you can."

"It's just, well, I never really saw myself having kids," I opened up to her. A small smile crept across my face as I continued, "I've been by myself since I left the clan. I haven't really spoken to someone in, well, a long time. But I just...I don't even really know. Something just makes me want to protect Voltana."

"That would probably be your paternal instinct. It shows that you're not completely terrible." She paused for a second then said, "If you're still not sure, you could always stay with us. There aren't many better places than a team to raise a youngster. Everyone can teach and pitch in when needed."

"No, I don't think so. I...well, I don't really want to be a trained Pokémon." I pushed down the memories that tried to come to the surface as I finished with, "Some things happened in my past that put me off from humans in general."

The glaceon winced. "You obviously don't want to talk about it, so I won't pry. Just remember: not all humans are bad."

I knew that, but I still didn't want to risk it. I'd just deal with raising Voltana by myself. Once she was healthy, of course.

* * *

"You're sure that you don't want to come with us?" the human asked, down on one knee so that her head was closer to mine. Knowing that she wouldn't understand my reply, I just nodded.

"Alright then, it's your decision." She seemed sad, but I'd made up my mind already. "At least let me give you a parting gift?"

I inclined my head to show curiosity and she brought out a…thing studded with black gemstones. I could feel the dark power inside of them from here, and something inside me stirred in response. They made me feel stronger without even touching me, but I'd never seen or heard of anything like them before.

"These are dark gems. They're imported from Unova, and will make your dark attacks stronger. But each one only works once before crumbling to dust. Hopefully you won't need them, but I feel like I should send you away with them just in case." She paused for a moment and asked, "May I?"

I didn't really understand what she was asking for, but nodded anyway. I bit back the instinctive reflex to jerk away as she wrapped something around my leg. A second later, it was done and the thing with all the gems was attached to my left foreleg. It was rather tight, but not uncomfortably so. I didn't really need her gift, but I'd take it. It was never a good idea to turn a gift away; you never knew when you'd need it.

With that, Voltana and I bade goodbye to Polaris, Tanya, and Veeta. Tanya was Polaris's owner's friend's blaziken, and Veeta was her other new friend's pachirisu. Voltana and I had both gotten to know the three of them rather well, making what could be considered a friendship with them. Both were rather nice, and they waved bye to us as we walked off back into the forest.

"Do we really have to go?" she pouted.

"Yes Voltana, we do. I have to teach you the way I was taught, and we need to be out here in the wild for that," I said over my shoulder as I kept walking. The quick glance told me that the shinx had sat down. "You coming?"

"Yes Daddy," she whined. She'd been referring to me like that more and more often over the last few days, and I'd accepted it by now. I was basically her father now, and I needed to embrace that role.

After a few hours of walking, by which point Voltana was complaining that her feet hurt, we finally got to the spring I'd lived at for a few months a year or so back. This was the best place to stay while Voltana fully recovered and I taught her the basics of fighting. Thankfully, it was still how I'd left it. I suppose it was rather hard for most native Pokémon to get up to the small cave I'd made my den in so long ago.

Once there, I let Voltana have a bit of rest while I washed myself in the spring. Once I felt she was ready, I made my best attempt at teaching her to use electricity. After a few tries, she managed to make her fur stand on end from static. She didn't manage to do anything else, but depending on how hard and long she tried it could still give a nasty shock whenever she tackled or scratched anyone. Or when anyone did the same to her. Useful, but I planned to wait until she was bigger and more durable to teach her to fight like I did.

She was exhausted after the training I put her through, so I let her go to sleep. I took my usual spot by the entrance and stretched out, my head propped on my paws while I lazily watched the spring and the clearing around it.

* * *

"You can't do this!"

I jolted awake to the sound of humans screaming at each other. Internally berating myself, I shushed the wide-eyed shinx who'd awakened behind me before she could make a sound. I gave her a look that said not to move and then crept forward until I could see what was happening.

"Of course I can. I'm bigger than you, stronger than you, and I have better Pokémon." A rather large male human was sneering down at the smaller one in front of him. "And that's without even mentioning this." He gesticulated with one of his hands, showing off the fact that it had one of the crude representations of my kind's head-blades, or other Pokémon's claws, clutched inside of it.

Against my better judgment, I started to slink down the rocks. From the conversation I was observing, the larger human was trying to steal Pokémon from the smaller. Three of those accursed red pokéballs were in the smaller one's hands, while the bigger one had an infernape standing next to him and four other balls around his waist.

"Now, you can either give your Pokémon up willingly and walk away from here, or I can kill you and take them." He shrugged. "I don't really care either way."

The poor, stupid human seemed to get it into his head to fight. The bidoof he sent out went down rather predictably to a single punch from the infernape. The starly that came next fell just as easily, but one of its wings obviously broke during the hit. The kid started panicking, and I decided to step in. I couldn't condone outright murder over something as petty as this. Especially when it involved stealing sentient beings. I might consider training to be slavery, but not everyone did. The littler ones Pokémon might actually like being with him, so I had to stand up as a protector.

As the smaller one sent out a rather young chimchar, I sprang forward. I'd managed to creep far enough forward that the leap carried me behind the infernape. As it hadn't even noticed me before, it had no chance to react before my blade cut across the back of its knees, sending a spray of blood across my fur and severing several of its tendons. I didn't like fighting to cripple like this, but the other Pokémon had the advantage in a straight-up battle. So I played to win, like always.

What disturbed me was how the fiery monkey didn't show any sign of the pain it had to be in. It just turned toward me with a flaming fist, but fell short as its legs gave out. What it did achieve, however, was showing me the dead, lifeless look in its eyes. It was like the Pokémon in front of me was just a shell: there was absolutely no emotion or personality inside its eyes. It kept trying to claw its way to me, even launching a few blasts of fire that could have set the entire forest ablaze, until it dissolved into red light as the larger man recalled it.

"Tsch… pathetic." He sneered at me and grabbed another ball from his belt. Before he could throw it out and release another of the unnatural Pokémon, I darted forward faster than the eye could follow. The metal blade in his hand went flying off into the bushes as I collided with him, bowling him over and leaving me on top with my own blade poised to slit his throat.

"Leave," I growled. My message must have been clear enough even with the language barrier because he shoved me away and slid the ball back to its slot before starting to go.

Just as he got onto the barely-existent trail leading back to the human path he said over his shoulder, "You got lucky this once, kid. That mutt of an absol has more guts than you could ever hope to have. Without it, nothing would have stopped me from taking your pathetic excuse for a team and leaving your corpse here to rot. Sinnoh is entering a new age, and you'd best either shape up or ship out. I was using kiddy gloves compared to what some of my cohorts do."

With those parting words, the would-be thief was gone. His little speech, when coupled with his dead-eyed Pokémon, left me feeling rather unnerved. I wouldn't go so far as to say I was scared, but I had a really bad feeling regarding the future. I resolved then and there to stay away from humans even more than before. My instincts had never failed me before, so I would trust them on this. Speaking of instincts…

My reflexes were working overtime as I spun around and slashed my head-blade through the blue sphere the human had hurled at me. It snapped neatly in half. I stomped on the two resulting pieces as I glared at the human for pulling an underhanded trick like that. I stormed towards him as threateningly as I could. I was really fed up with the idiocy of these humans after all I'd seen in the last few days. When I started growling, he turned tail and ran. The only sign of his presence was the stink of urine in the air.

With that little bit of excitement over with, I decided that it was time to sleep. Voltana was already curled back up and snoring as I settled down to get some rest of my own.

Protecting her, it seemed, was my new purpose in life.

* * *

**Author's Note: Well… this took a lot longer than expected. If I were a lesser man, I may have blamed the delay on Silvanus for running away. I…**

**SIlvanus: Hey! I was right to run! And it's not like I even stayed free for an hour. *grumbled words that cannot be fully heard.***

**As I was saying; I got distracted with working on an original project. Said project WILL be finished and WILL be published, but I need a break from it every now and then. This will do nicely, but it is still a side project. **

**Astrid: You better keep writing! I like my starring role in your actual book, but this is my first job!**

**Sure, sure. Anyway, sorry for the delay. I'll try to tone them down to three week delays at the most, but I make no promises. **

**All Together: Join us next chapter for some character-building fun and a new member's introduction to the team! **

**EDIT: Too lazy to change the actual author's notes, but this marks the end of what I had already done from before, freshly re-edited.**


End file.
